Portugal in-country course recap

From 24 to 26 January 2024, Portugal hosted the first of four in-country trainings on the implementation of antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) in hospitals.This successful 3-days course was organised by Dr. José Artur Paiva from the São João University Hospital and 14 faculty members from Portugal, Belgium and the Netherlands. Central throughout this training was inserting implementation science in hospital AMS programs.

Five healthcare professionals from eight hospitals in different areas in Portugal participated in the course. On day one, they dived deeper into the concept of AMS and setting up an AMS program in  hospitals. The second day revolved around quantity and quality indicators of antibiotic use and workshops about the Global-PPS analyses, how to operationalise quality indicators for appropriate antimicrobial use and how to define the most important AMS implementation problems and which metrics to use. During the final day, the presentations and workshops focused on behavioural change and the determinants of antibiotic use. 

It was a valuable course for us, especially in regards to implementation. It’s not just thinking that you want to change things and then simply doing it, there is a whole science behind it. This course is essential in learning to understand this process, developing a plan and then applying it. – Hospital de Braga

The combination of first being presented the theory and then getting time to brainstorm about how to apply it was very useful. We were familiar with the topics but it was great to take a deeper dive into them, such as the quality indicators and how to measure them.ULS Averia

In the next few months, in-country training courses will be organised by the drive-AMS partners in Greece, Romania and Lithuania.